Nancarrow turning over a new leaf

Longtime weatherman returns to TV Monday

Longtime weather anchor Loren Nancarrow left Channel 10 after being offered a contract that would have paid him much less. The station also wanted him to stop reporting on environmental news, nature or gardening. He starts a new job on Monday at Fox 5/KSWB San Diego. (John Gastaldo / Union-Tribune)

Longtime weather anchor Loren Nancarrow left Channel 10 after being offered a contract that would have paid him much less. The station also wanted him to stop reporting on environmental news, nature or gardening. He starts a new job on Monday at Fox 5/KSWB San Diego. (John Gastaldo / Union-Tribune)

RANCHO SANTA FE 
Like many newly unemployed media professionals, former Channel 10 weather anchor Loren Nancarrow spent the summer trying to figure out what to do next.

Even more perplexing, he had to decide what to
be
next.

As it turns out, he just needed to be himself.

And now he will be returning to local TV news on Monday.

Since 1991, Nancarrow worked as a television personality who expanded his weather coverage to report on the environment. A passionate outdoorsman, Nancarrow was frequently seen on San Diego TV screens wearing his familiar baseball cap and offering garden tips in his velvety baritone.

Last May, new management at KGTV/Channel 10 had different ideas.

“I was offered a new contract, but for much less money,” said Nancarrow, who shares his Rancho Santa Fe home with his wife and two of his three children. His eldest daughter attends San Diego State University.

“They wanted nothing but the weather; I couldn't mention environmental news, nature or gardening. I don't resent them one bit. But I'd rather start at the beginning of something than slide backwards.”

A four-time Emmy Award-winner, Nancarrow rejected the new contract and left his job.

As he considered the ways to fashion a new future, Nancarrow, now in his 50s, took stock of his past.

His mentor, news director Jim Holtzman, hired him to be a reporter for KFMB/Channel 8 in 1980.

“He had an attitude of ‘let's try it and see if it works.’ He didn't listen to consultants and all the pencil pushers, and as a result, he created a popular newscast.”

Determined to advance his career, Nancarrow left San Diego in 1988 to anchor the evening news in San Francisco.

Two years later, he called Holtzman and asked if he could return to San Diego.

Holtzman said yes, but it would be on his terms. He designed a weatherman position that tapped Nancarrow's interests.

When there were days of ubiquitous San Diego sunshine, Nancarrow reported on everything from water conservation to how he planted his pumpkins.

A natural enthusiasm for environmental issues became part of Nancarrow's public persona and he developed a following.

Without his TV job, Nancarrow reasoned that he would have to reinvent himself.

He turned to his wife, a successful real estate agent, for inspiration.

“She was totally supportive of my decision,” Nancarrow said.

“She's also a proud businesswoman who, frankly, outearns me.”

The couple decided to try working together.

Susie Nancarrow heads Nancarrow Realty Group, based in Encinitas.

After he showed a client a property, Nancarrow said that his wife, to her credit, fired him.

“At first I thought, well, he knows marketing; he knows a lot of people; we'll see how it goes,” Susie Nancarrow said.

“Then we both realized that I was not going to be his boss; it wasn't a good fit. We've been together so long, yet we haven't had evenings together for 23 years. All of a sudden, we are discovering that he has his strengths and I have mine.”